BALTIMORE—Lance Lucas believes he has a way to change the fortunes of this city. A local technology services entrepreneur and president of the Greater Baltimore Black Chamber of Commerce, Lucas is also CEO of the non-profit organization Digit All Systems (DAS). His organization aims to give members of the city's most disadvantaged communities the technology and life skills needed to join the state's booming IT economy.

In July, Lucas and DAS grabbed national headlines (and drew the wrath of Second Amendment advocates) by staging "Stop Shooting, Start Coding," a laptops-for-guns exchange event. In the midst of an exceptionally violent summer—even by Baltimore standards—DAS partnered with the Baltimore City Police and offered city residents refurbished Dell laptops and free computer training in exchange for firearms.

It was the organization's most high-profile effort to date, part of a larger effort to get computers into the hands of Baltimore residents. In total, DAS has given away over 3,000 refurbished laptops through city schools and other organizations, and it has set up computing labs in city housing projects as part of an effort to bridge the "digital divide."

But Lucas' greatest impact may still be to come. His next two goals complement each other in an attempt to improve lives through learning the technology, but these initiatives currently stand at drastically different points of progress.

To start, Lucas has a vision for Baltimore's school system that he believes would turn it into a magnet to draw people and investment back into the city. By introducing technical certification programs into the curriculum, he hopes to turn the city's youth into an economic engine—allowing them to draw big paychecks right out of high school as data center engineers, security experts, and ethical hackers. It's a concept he wants to expand even beyond the city limits.

And in addition to this training pipeline, Lucas wants to put free Wi-Fi in one of Baltimore's most depressed neighborhoods in order to give people access to the technology and skills they'll need to get jobs. He envisions hands-on training through a small data center in downtown Baltimore that would double as a cloud computing training ground. The idea could give students experiential skills for what Lucas and others at DAS see as the next big thing in IT.

There are just a few problems. And after over a year of trying, the data center still sits empty. For a number of reasons, as convincing as Lucas' sales pitch for his vision may sound to many in the city, he has yet to land the backing to pull it off. This could be due to the tech community's perception of Lance Lucas himself or a cultural disconnect that has been widened by local politics. But ultimately, any challenges may stem from the fact that Lucas' approach—while highly ambitious—may be too practically focused to inspire the city's traditionally lofty-goal-oriented, big-money supporters.

Tech pros or “tech butlers?”

You'd think all this would be something people in Baltimore's IT-driven industries could get behind. But Lucas has run into criticism from many who promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in Baltimore because of his focus on achieving goals through professional certification programs like those offered by CompTIA, Microsoft, and Cisco.

"I want him to be successful," said Andrew Coy, executive director of the Digital Harbor Foundation (another nonprofit focused on boosting tech education). "I just question some of the quotes and numbers he's given on the effectiveness of what he's done, as well as the overall scope of what he's doing, and whether that's even the right approach to take."

Others are more critical. "He should be teaching people how to program," one person in the tech nonprofit community told me recently. "Teaching tech support skills is a waste of time and resources. Instead of giving people the skills needed to land high-paying tech jobs, Lance is teaching them how to put a tie on and become tech butlers."

But Lucas believes the certificates are a stepping stone to get young people on the road to developing broader tech skills. He sees these as a way to help them be self-sufficient in a community where there isn't exactly a support system for budding technologists. "How can you ever say that an A+ person is not required when Best Buy still charges $325 to format your hard drive and $125 just to look at it?" Lucas replied. "And they're making a mint. [Edward] Snowden had an A+ certification from a community college, and he was making $85,000 a year."

Lucas doesn't want people to stop at CompTIA A+ certification—an industry association standard certification for PC support technicians. He sees it as a first step. "A+ certification gets you 15 to 25 dollars an hour, $30,000 a year," Lucas said. "The next step, Network+, is $63,000 a year. Security+ is $83,000 a year, and to work in cyber security at the Department of Defense, Security+ is a requirement. If you have a Security+ certification, you can skip the interview process. So I'm not crazy at all—what I'm doing is creating a stepping stone."

Rebooting a city in need

At Digit All Systems' "Stop Shooting, Start Coding" event on July 15, a member of DAS' staff distributes laptops to people who have turned in firearms to police.

Even before the spike in murders this summer, Baltimore already had a reputation for violence. Because of David Simon's books and television series Homicide and The Wire, the city's name instantly invokes an image of drug gang wars, crumbling neighborhoods and schools, and social ills run out of control.

No one will deny that this city has problems. While Baltimore's public school system has seen significant improvements in the last decade and the city has seen nearly a decade of reduced crime, the recession hit hard. The city has an official unemployment rate of about 10 percent, nearly double what it was five years ago. And that doesn't count people who have been jobless for so long that they're not even considered part of the work force. In some neighborhoods, the jobless rate has run 20 percent or higher for decades.

Then there's the violence. After nearly a decade of progress on violent crime, things exploded this year. Baltimore has seen 156 homicides so far and 50 shootings this summer alone. The spike in violence prompted Baltimore's City Paper to call this the "Summer of the Gun."

For years, the city has arranged various types of gun buyback programs in an effort to get weapons off the streets, but these have done little to stem the violence. DAS' laptop-gun swap event in July, held at Baltimore's Downtown Cultural Arts Center, was not exactly a giant step forward in that regard.

The event was endorsed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, US Congressman Elijah Cummings, and Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts. It ran in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. But only a hundred people, some from outside of the city, showed up. And just about half of the 110 laptops DAS brought to the event were given away in exchange for firearms—many of which had previously been hidden away by their owners for decades.

Enlarge/ The guns turned in at DAS' laptop exchange event in the first hour.

Few of the people who showed up signed up for the training that was supposed to be the giveaway's much bigger hook—CompTIA A+ computer technician and other computer skills certification classes.

"We had 15 people sign up for classes," Lucas told me when I visited DAS' downtown Baltimore offices that week. "I think it was low because there was a lot of hesitation for people to write something down and put their name somewhere, since it's the first time it's been done. I think because of the fear that it wasn't a totally anonymous thing, the people weren't pumped to do it. I think the next time we do it, we'll do it as 'come to sign up for computer classes' and say you don't have to bring a gun to sign up for the training."

So the giveaway's direct results were modest at best, but it prompted an outpouring of support from inside and outside the city (besides some criticism from Second Amendment advocates). "People liked it because it gives people hope," Lucas told me a few days after the giveaway. "I've had so many e-mails from people that it's like, I want to do this in every city, every state," Lucas told me.

And again, it raised the visibility of Lucas' organization. DAS received money from a number of businesses to support the giveaway specifically. Sadly, this higher profile hasn't translated into wider financial support for Lucas' one-two punch of tech reformation. Not yet, at least.

135 Reader Comments

Have to say it's always depressing when looking at the results of any gun buyback. Hard to tell exact models from that pic, but I see what appears to be an old Colt and a British Webley, both antiques, likely with extensive histories and could probably be sold for a lot more than a refurbished Dell. And they're just going to be melted down for scrap.

If someone said "give up your means of exercise of free speech in exchange for a machine and some vocational training" everyone would think it was nuts.

But speak against giving up the means to bear arms in exchange for a machine and some vocational training and only '2nd amendment types' can possibly have any objection and of course they can be conveniently dismissed...

I call double standard.

Especially when it results in people selling stuff that's worth more than a refurbished laptop for less. Way to take advantage of the poor and gullible.

Others are more critical. "He should be teaching people how to program," one person in the tech nonprofit community told me recently. "Teaching tech support skills is a waste of time and resources. Instead of giving people the skills needed to land high-paying tech jobs, Lance is teaching them how to put a tie on and become tech butlers."

Whoever this person was, tell them I said to take their snobbery and fuck off. Thanks.

Just as the first poster pointed out the couple of guns that have value are antiques. Not the type of gun used in shootings. Some of the others that I can see, are really cheap junk. Again, what is causing the problems...

No one is more of a "Second Amendment advocate" than I am. (I'm a Life Member and will be upgrading to Benefactor soon.) However, I believe in freedom. However misguided I think that his actions are... If this is what he wants to spend his money on, let him.

If someone said "give up your means of exercise of free speech in exchange for a machine and some vocational training" everyone would think it was nuts.

But speak against giving up the means to bear arms in exchange for a machine and some vocational training and only '2nd amendment types' can possibly have any objection and of course they can be conveniently dismissed...

I call double standard.

...maybe because your right to free speech can't really be used to kill people, whereas your right to keep and bear arms can be, and this is an initiative to reduce violence and killing?

It's not a double standard because the two things- beyond both being rights in the US Constitution- aren't actually the same.

Though I suppose this reply will probably just look like more evidence of the double standard.

Have to say it's always depressing when looking at the results of any gun buyback. Hard to tell exact models from that pic, but I see what appears to be an old Colt and a British Webley, both antiques, likely with extensive histories and could probably be sold for a lot more than a refurbished Dell. And they're just going to be melted down for scrap.

You're ignoring the other, far more important value of those weapons. Like how they won't ever be used again for any type of crime. I'd say the latter value well outweighs any intrinsic value of the weapon being melted down.

Hmm. Those computers could be used to violate the DMCA or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act! It would probably be socially responsible to conduct a computer buyback, give away free firearms, and melt the computers down. Run in cooperation with the police, of course.

It is sad that an article with very little to do about guns, is craped on by the "Gun Nuts" in the comments. Something I would have expected from a Fox "News" trash job, but not in Ars's comments.

This is not to say that their are not good arguments on both sides, just that the pro-rights side is particularly vocal, and vile. They seem to attack anything that does not 100% toe their party line. Including any basic regulation. For instance including fire arm misuse as a disqualifies for background checks, funding for studies on gun violence, buy back programs, and universal back ground check requirements.

While I find the whole concept of gun buy-backs to be dubious, I find this man's efforts to help his community to become more connected as admirable. The more in-touch we make the sectors of our society with cyclic poverty, the more chance those individuals may have to pull themselves out of it.

As for the concept of the gun buy-back, I submit to you this quote from a 2004 study from the National Research Council

"The theory on which gun buy-back programs is based is flawed in three respects. First, the guns that are typically surrendered in gun buy-backs are those that are least likely to be used in criminal activities... Second, because replacement guns are relatively easily obtained, the actual decline in the number of guns on the street may be smaller than the number of guns that are turned in. Third, the likelihood that any particular gun will be used in a crime in a given year is low." - Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review ( 2004 ) by the National Research Council

Baltimore's problem: drug lords. Legalize drugs, treat addiction as a medical, not criminal, issue, and high schoolers won't get fooled into thinking that joining the drug trade is a good career. Not to mention violence will drop.

This article is about tech education for the disadvantaged, which is a deep, complex issue. I looked forward to reading comments from the Ars community regarding the pros and cons of different approaches to education, based on personal experience and institutional knowledge of the community.

Instead, within the first few comments, the gun types have hijacked the discussion. Is gun ownership such a huge part of your personal self-identity that you can't read the word "gun" in a tech article without feeling the need to get on your soapbox to pontificate?

Before I'm accused of being a gun fearing liberal, I say this as a former US Army infantryman who owns several firearms. Please. No one needs nor wants to hear the same old arguments about gun ownership in the commentary on this article.

Have to say it's always depressing when looking at the results of any gun buyback. Hard to tell exact models from that pic, but I see what appears to be an old Colt and a British Webley, both antiques, likely with extensive histories and could probably be sold for a lot more than a refurbished Dell. And they're just going to be melted down for scrap.

You're ignoring the other, far more important value of those weapons. Like how they won't ever be used again for any type of crime. I'd say the latter value well outweighs any intrinsic value of the weapon being melted down.

Assuming they were going to be used for a crime to begin with. Oh I'm sure there's a minority that would be, but most of the time such guns are just heirlooms lying in someone's attic, then they hear they can get easy money for grandpa's old gun. There's a reason you see precious few modern weapons in that picture, and it's not because the real criminals can't afford them.

This article is about tech education for the disadvantaged, which is a deep, complex issue. I looked forward to reading comments from the Ars community regarding the pros and cons of different approaches to education, based on personal experience and institutional knowledge of the community.

Instead, within the first few comments, the gun types have hijacked the discussion. Is gun ownership such a huge part of your personal self-identity that you can't read the word "gun" in a tech article without feeling the need to get on your soapbox to pontificate?

Before I'm accused of being a gun fearing liberal, I say this as a former US Army infantryman who owns several firearms. Please. No one needs nor wants to hear the same old arguments about gun ownership in the commentary on this article.

To be fair the article's headline mentions guns, the banner image is nothing but guns being crossed out by laptops, and there's multiple images of the buyback embedded in the article. It's not like we're nitpicking a single sentence here.

As for the rest, I'm all for his philosophy of going for certifications over more academic training. We're talking about educating the uneducated poor, you have to give them something practical within their capabilities. I'd love for everyone to have a Computer Science degree, but that's just not realistic.

The part where the author mentioned the name of the certification as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, is only applicable to Windows 2003 at this point. MCSE now means Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (source: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us ... rview.aspx).

I share some of the author's enthusiasm for this project, but mentioning twice in one page about the Second Amendment groups having their wrath drawn doesn't really add to the story, it just makes it look overly partisan. At least cite some sources if you insist on keeping those references.

I agree with Coy on some levels. The first is about certs. Certs mean nothing without experience. That is where the data center will really come in. Get some $100 HP servers off of eBay and load them up with VMWare ESXi and start building labs with Windows 2012 trials (with rearming they can last as long as a school year). Throw on Linux and some IOS labs. Yes, 97% of the First world will be consuming mobile products at some point, but someone needs to run the backbone.

The second issue I saw was also related to something Coy said. When I look at job listings, I see a lit of programming and software analyst positions. With that in mind, he should really look at adding that to the curriculum.

Lastly, I don't see a single mention of database design and administration. This is a very large oversight. Diversity is important. I don't see a lot of domestic companies shipping people across the company to manage a Windows environment.

Have to say it's always depressing when looking at the results of any gun buyback. Hard to tell exact models from that pic, but I see what appears to be an old Colt and a British Webley, both antiques, likely with extensive histories and could probably be sold for a lot more than a refurbished Dell. And they're just going to be melted down for scrap.

You're ignoring the other, far more important value of those weapons. Like how they won't ever be used again for any type of crime. I'd say the latter value well outweighs any intrinsic value of the weapon being melted down.

When is the last time a lever-action rifle was used in a crime?

Some of the guns in that photo are Saturday Night Specials--frequently used in armed robberies and the like--but the long guns and the single-action revolvers pictured are another matter.

I know no disadvanted man would EVER steal a laptop. Nor a gun to get a laptop.

That was point one. Point two is that disadvantaged people sometimes live in shitty areas, and need those guns to save their lives. Yesterday a man came in my place of business, he had been stabbed 14 or so times, his gun saved his life. This guy definitely would have traded his gun, he was that poor.

It is sad that an article with very little to do about guns, is craped on by the "Gun Nuts" in the comments. Something I would have expected from a Fox "News" trash job, but not in Ars's comments.

This is not to say that their are not good arguments on both sides, just that the pro-rights side is particularly vocal, and vile. They seem to attack anything that does not 100% toe their party line. Including any basic regulation. For instance including fire arm misuse as a disqualifies for background checks, funding for studies on gun violence, buy back programs, and universal back ground check requirements.

The article has "guns" in its title, and yet you call someone vile for simply talking about the guns pictured in the article?

And your post is the first mention of background checks or funding studies on gun violence in the entire discussion. You're the one bringing up these issues unrelated to the article...not the people bemoaning the melting down of the guns pictured in the article.

It is sad that an article with very little to do about guns, is craped on by the "Gun Nuts" in the comments. Something I would have expected from a Fox "News" trash job, but not in Ars's comments.

This is not to say that their are not good arguments on both sides, just that the pro-rights side is particularly vocal, and vile. They seem to attack anything that does not 100% toe their party line. Including any basic regulation. For instance including fire arm misuse as a disqualifies for background checks, funding for studies on gun violence, buy back programs, and universal back ground check requirements.

The article has "guns" in its title, and yet you call someone vile for simply talking about the guns pictured in the article?

And your post is the first mention of background checks or funding studies on gun violence in the entire discussion. You're the one bringing up these issues unrelated to the article...not the people bemoaning the melting down of the guns pictured in the article.

You need to learn how to read. I stated that the "Gun Nuts" attack anything about fire arms that does not toe their party line are vile. I never said those simply talking about them were vile. I then illustrated that point with some examples.

And, just because the article has the word gun in its title does not mean it is about gun control. Yet the second poster decides to go off about the 2nd amendment rights.

Have to say it's always depressing when looking at the results of any gun buyback. Hard to tell exact models from that pic, but I see what appears to be an old Colt and a British Webley, both antiques, likely with extensive histories and could probably be sold for a lot more than a refurbished Dell. And they're just going to be melted down for scrap.

You're ignoring the other, far more important value of those weapons. Like how they won't ever be used again for any type of crime. I'd say the latter value well outweighs any intrinsic value of the weapon being melted down.

Assuming they were going to be used for a crime to begin with. Oh I'm sure there's a minority that would be, but most of the time such guns are just heirlooms lying in someone's attic, then they hear they can get easy money for grandpa's old gun. There's a reason you see precious few modern weapons in that picture, and it's not because the real criminals can't afford them.

Yes. A gun turn-in means that the guns would be used in a crime. Lawful owners, like me, don't turn in guns. And I've got a shitload of weapons in my home, legally purchased. But, I damn sure won't take any of them in for smelting.

This article is about tech education for the disadvantaged, which is a deep, complex issue. I looked forward to reading comments from the Ars community regarding the pros and cons of different approaches to education, based on personal experience and institutional knowledge of the community.

Instead, within the first few comments, the gun types have hijacked the discussion. Is gun ownership such a huge part of your personal self-identity that you can't read the word "gun" in a tech article without feeling the need to get on your soapbox to pontificate?

Before I'm accused of being a gun fearing liberal, I say this as a former US Army infantryman who owns several firearms. Please. No one needs nor wants to hear the same old arguments about gun ownership in the commentary on this article.

sometimes i think Ars should just get rid of comment sections on stories.

Have to say it's always depressing when looking at the results of any gun buyback. Hard to tell exact models from that pic, but I see what appears to be an old Colt and a British Webley, both antiques, likely with extensive histories and could probably be sold for a lot more than a refurbished Dell. And they're just going to be melted down for scrap.

You're ignoring the other, far more important value of those weapons. Like how they won't ever be used again for any type of crime. I'd say the latter value well outweighs any intrinsic value of the weapon being melted down.

When is the last time a lever-action rifle was used in a crime? .

you mean you haven't heard of Cyrus the Gang Banging Cowboy? He robs Amtrak while riding a horse. He keeps asking for the "Bullion" and people keep trying to explain that president Nixon took the US off the gold standard in the 1970s... he won't listen.

Others are more critical. "He should be teaching people how to program," one person in the tech nonprofit community told me recently. "Teaching tech support skills is a waste of time and resources. Instead of giving people the skills needed to land high-paying tech jobs, Lance is teaching them how to put a tie on and become tech butlers."

Whoever this person was, tell them I said to take their snobbery and fuck off. Thanks.

And their ignorance too! I work in tech support; my individual salary is more than 50% higher than the median household income in the US. And that's still nowhere near the maximum I can expect to earn in this broad job sector.

I hope this guy is successful. Certs may get outdated, and they're not always the most interesting ways for people to share their technical skills, but they WORK. You can get a job out of high school -- if you have the certs. It's not as easy as if you have a degree, but with neither... good luck. Plus, real experience running a datacenter? Super useful, even if you eventually graduate to the level where you're not working the datacenter anymore.

I look forward to seeing more positive results from DAS. Here's hoping Baltimore can join the tech-elite cities of the world!

For a number of reasons, as convincing as Lucas' sales pitch for his vision may sound to many in the city, he has yet to land the backing to pull it off. This could be due to the tech community's perception of Lance Lucas himself or a cultural disconnect that has been widened by local politics. But ultimately, any challenges may stem from the fact that Lucas' approach—while highly ambitious—may be too practically focused to inspire the city's traditionally lofty-goal-oriented, big-money supporters.

Quote:

After discussions with a number of people in Baltimore's tech startup and social activist community, it's clear what the big problem is in Lucas' way: a cultural disconnect that is bigger than the gap between sysadmins and software developers. Lucas is an insider when it comes to Baltimore's traditional power base—he has been able to muster the mayor and other city officials behind him because of his position in Baltimore's business community. But he's an outsider to Baltimore's angel investors and tech startup community, whose use of tech buzzwords sometimes belies his salesman roots.

(Emphasis mine.) What do you mean by that term? The context is unclear. It sounds like the implication is, "The guy's black and the big money investors are white." If so, please don't do that. If race is a factor here then that needs to be made clear. Burying it in euphemism doesn't help anyone.

For a number of reasons, as convincing as Lucas' sales pitch for his vision may sound to many in the city, he has yet to land the backing to pull it off. This could be due to the tech community's perception of Lance Lucas himself or a cultural disconnect that has been widened by local politics. But ultimately, any challenges may stem from the fact that Lucas' approach—while highly ambitious—may be too practically focused to inspire the city's traditionally lofty-goal-oriented, big-money supporters.

Quote:

After discussions with a number of people in Baltimore's tech startup and social activist community, it's clear what the big problem is in Lucas' way: a cultural disconnect that is bigger than the gap between sysadmins and software developers. Lucas is an insider when it comes to Baltimore's traditional power base—he has been able to muster the mayor and other city officials behind him because of his position in Baltimore's business community. But he's an outsider to Baltimore's angel investors and tech startup community, whose use of tech buzzwords sometimes belies his salesman roots.

(Emphasis mine.) What do you mean by that term? The context is unclear. It sounds like the implication is, "The guy's black and the big money investors are white." If so, please don't do that. If race is a factor here then that needs to be made clear. Burying it in euphemism doesn't help anyone.

The last part of the second paragraph you quoted explains the perceived disconnect pretty explicitly, and it has nothing to do with race. Sean thinks there are two groups here. The first group is the "traditional power base" - local government, local business community. This is the group Lucas has more of a connection to (hence the "insider"). The second group is composed of "angel investors and the tech startup community". Those two groups have very different cultures, ways of doing things, expectations, you name it. It's not a black/white thing - if anything it's more of a techie/non-techie thing. It sounds like the practical tech guys think they detect the stench of "marketing" on him.

If someone said "give up your means of exercise of free speech in exchange for a machine and some vocational training" everyone would think it was nuts.

The analogy is not giving up your free speech in return for a laptop. The analogy is retracting something you've said in return for a laptop, with the understanding that if you feel like it, you can say it again later. People who voluntarily hand in a gun for a laptop are not giving up the right to own guns, they are just giving up a particular gun. To make it absolutely clear how absurd your analogy is, I would happily give someone a donut for a laptop, but I would not give up my right to eat.

If someone said "give up your means of exercise of free speech in exchange for a machine and some vocational training" everyone would think it was nuts.

But speak against giving up the means to bear arms in exchange for a machine and some vocational training and only '2nd amendment types' can possibly have any objection and of course they can be conveniently dismissed...

I call double standard.

Especially when it results in people selling stuff that's worth more than a refurbished laptop for less. Way to take advantage of the poor and gullible.

You're not giving away any rights... are these people saying they will never bear arms again? No. If someone told you if you shut your mouth for 30 minutes & they'd give you a laptop, I'd doubt you'd be complaining.

While I think this is a positive movement to try & change the minds of youth that are not yet totally swayed by crime, I doubt this trading scheme will accomplish much other than to act as a pawnbroker for guys with old rusty guns.

Others are more critical. "He should be teaching people how to program," one person in the tech nonprofit community told me recently. "Teaching tech support skills is a waste of time and resources. Instead of giving people the skills needed to land high-paying tech jobs, Lance is teaching them how to put a tie on and become tech butlers."

Whoever this person was, tell them I said to take their snobbery and fuck off. Thanks.

Indeed. Not all geeks need to be coders, after all. Sadly, though, this is an all-too-common refrain when in reality these "tech butler" jobs are generally pretty well paying, especially for someone who'd otherwise be working at minimum wage. If nothing else, it gets their feet wet in the tech arena.

Goodness gracious, this thread went downhill pretty quick. (As expected; let's be honest, the title and article are fodder.)

While I philosophically applaud the initiative, these type of "trade ins" usually amount to a symbolic gesture and have no true impact on gun violence. (I mean, come on, do you actually think gun-toting criminals give two shits about this program? I would be shocked that even 1% of active criminals would even have this on their radar.)

This is coming from someone who used to be on the job. As much as I wish that these efforts can make a difference, I honestly don't believe that they will.

That being said, I'm all for community activism and social change. I'm just reticent to promote these types of initiatives as truly pragmatic and worthwhile.

I think classes to teach computer literacy are ultimately shortsighted. You're trying to fix the effects of the problem, and not the cause. Computer literacy needs to be included in every single content area, and that takes two things.

One is more technology in the classroom (not better and newer, we just need internet access and enough horsepower for basic software suites) and that just requires a lot of money, the traditional computer lab should be a thing of the past. This would allow students to frequently do things like analyze the patterns of immigration in response to anti-immigration laws in social studies, analyze large sets of data in math class, do group annotations of a text in English (and provide an automatic translation for English Language Learners), use Adobe products in art, and it could dramatically expand science education in every direction.

The other is better teacher education programs, I'm in a very well-regarded teacher prep program, and I might stab someone if I hear anything else about smartboards, prezi, glogster, webquests, or popplet. Basically, every piece of technology is style over substance. The educational tech industry is constantly creating new tools to display content, instead of convincing teachers to use those tools to interact with the material and then teaching teachers how to use those tools. The truly ignorant elected officials on the schoolboard think this is progress. It's gotten so bad that one of the rich districts near me has started giving out tablets to all their students without keyboard attachments.

If your going to try building cloud apps, some prior knowledge of networking will help you to understand what is going on underneath those API calls. After spending a few years with MS-DOS, when I tried my hand at web server cgi-scripts with Perl, I saw the headers were being passed as environment variables. I already knew how they worked, and that made for easier troubleshooting. A budding developer with the knowledge to install/manage tools and servers on a system, and the ability to configure multiple systems to work to some end on a network, has a valuable model that will help grease their way along. Knowing how port forwarding works will help when you jump into sockets programming.

Some of the software being taught will be outdated in a few years, but many of the underlying concepts evolve slower, and will still be useful for many of those who go on to pursue a development track. Even "black box" level knowledge of the system is good, because once you begin to study code there will be anchors in the brain to relate to what the code is doing.

I dunno, I want to be on Lucas's side, but with lines like "I have a three-page document that can certify you in Word today" and "his organizations' websites are replete with typos and far from slick" make him sound like a big huckster with good connections. It's great to want to engage the underprivileged, but the cynical part of me has a hard time believing this guy's intentions are pure. I'm more with Coy on this one -- they should be teaching valuable skills, not pumping out certification statistics.

The overall point of a gun trade in isn't to get all the guns off the street. Its considered perk but its not the overall goal. The purpose is to attempt to change the culture. The hopes that people see their neighbors giving up their guns for education or laptops is supposed to add a perceived value of education within the community. Because its pretty obvious a criminal with a gun can easily get a laptop by force. Many low income-high crime areas do not value education and the kids in schools are discouraged by their peers to excel in an educational fashion. It is an extremely large issue and programs like this attempt to change that culture. No one is trying to take away your second amendment right here.

Others are more critical. "He should be teaching people how to program," one person in the tech nonprofit community told me recently. "Teaching tech support skills is a waste of time and resources. Instead of giving people the skills needed to land high-paying tech jobs, Lance is teaching them how to put a tie on and become tech butlers."

Whoever this person was, tell them I said to take their snobbery and fuck off. Thanks.

Indeed. Not all geeks need to be coders, after all. Sadly, though, this is an all-too-common refrain when in reality these "tech butler" jobs are generally pretty well paying, especially for someone who'd otherwise be working at minimum wage. If nothing else, it gets their feet wet in the tech arena.

I'm one of those tech butlers. I make twice the median income for my state - before bonuses and perks. I've written a few application, but I certainly wouldn't want to try to make a living at it. Read the comments in most Ars articles to see what a high-stress, low-reward career that is.As far as this guy's program is concerned, I would call it a failure. The results show that almost none of those people came in for a new oppportunity. At least half of the people who signed up for classes won't show up, because they just thought signing the paper would get them some kind of brownie points. They brought in a gun (which may have been stolen), and got a free laptop so they can go to McDonalds and look at YouTube or porn on the free wifi.